August Capital leads $30 mln round for Integral Ad Science

Integral Ad Science has closed $30 million in funding. August Capital led the round. According to the company, the capital infusion will be used for growth and product development. Headquartered in New York City, Integral Ad Science is a provider of advertising intelligence for digital media buyers and sellers.

PRESS RELEASE

NEW YORK – January 8, 2014 – Integral Ad Science (www.integralads.com), the leading global provider of actionable advertising intelligence for buyers and sellers of digital media, today announced that it has received an infusion of $30 million led by August Capital that will be used to support technology and data science innovation as well as Integral’s international growth. The company surpassed its goals for growth over the last year, reporting that it has doubled its revenue in 2013. Since the company’s rebranding in November 2012, Integral’s media valuation solutions, which help brands, agencies and publishers eliminate online advertising fraud and optimize toward more viewable, high-quality ad impressions, have emerged as the industry standard for ensuring quality.
Eric Carlborg of August Capital, who has joined Integral’s board of directors, said, “The digital advertising industry is constantly evolving and presenting great opportunities for companies that innovate and we are thrilled to invest in Integral at this time. The company has become the digital industry’s standard for evaluating media quality for brands and publishers and with its patented technologies, Integral is well positioned for the future.”
As the industry’s leading independent third party standard for media valuation, Integral is integrated with and now counts as clients, the top five Demand Side Platforms (DSPs), nearly all of the major exchanges, including Rubicon, OpenX, and Pubmatic, all agency holding companies, and more than 70 percent of the “Advertising Age Top 100 Advertisers.”
With its large footprint in the digital space, Integral processes a significant volume of daily data points that continuously improve the company’s machine learning technology and accuracy, which have been certified by the Media Ratings Council (MRC) and was recently granted a patent. The cutting edge technology that powers Integral’s suite of products coupled with its strategic integrations and accessibility to all industry players, contributed to the adoption in the marketplace and revenue growth that led to the company being ranked the fastest growing company in NY according to Crain’s New York Business’ 2013 Fast 50 awards.
“Integral Ad Science has been at the forefront of technological innovation for media-quality issues that the industry is facing,” said Scott Knoll, CEO of Integral Ad Science. “Coupled with our commitment to neutrality, Integral has quickly become the partner of choice for stakeholders seeking to eliminate waste and optimize around true advertising quality and ultimately improve effectiveness.”
Along with the growth of the business, Integral focused on superior customer service and was able to maintain a 98 percent client retention rate. On average, Integral handled 74 percent more campaigns per customer account and experienced a volume per campaign increase of 82 percent from Q3 2012 to Q3 2013.
Simultaneously, the company experienced a 75 percent jump in the number of employees, and it projects that it will increase its global headcount significantly in 2014. While expanding its roster, Integral also secured its place on Crain’s New York Business’ “Best Places to Work” list.
Internationally, the company established a UK headquarter in 2013, and has grown from zero to eleven full-time UK-based employees to better serve global customers. Plans for future global growth in 2014 include team expansion in Europe and office openings in Japan and Australia.
About August Capital
August Capital was founded in 1995 to invest in companies differentiated by technical innovation and entrepreneurial excellence. To date, the August Capital funds total $2.0 billion. August Capital’s seven partners have more than a century of combined venture experience and together have invested in more than 80 companies across the technology spectrum. These companies represent an aggregate market capitalization of well over $250 billion and generate in excess of $75 billion in annual revenue. The partners at August Capital were the earliest investors in a number of ground breaking technology companies including Microsoft, Intuit, Seagate, Silicon Image, Sun Microsystems, Skype, Compaq, Symantec, Sybase, Atheros, Postini, Cobalt, shopping.com, PayCycle, Splunk, zulily and many more. August Capital is located in Menlo Park, California. For more information, please visit: www.augustcap.com.
About Integral Ad Science
Integral Ad Science is a technology company focused on ensuring safe, quality media environments for online advertisers. Employing the industry’s only media valuation platform, Integral Ad Science evaluates the media environment and establishes a TRAQ Score (True Advertising Quality), a first-of-its kind, quantifiable measure of media quality that ultimately benefits every media buyer, seller, publisher and trading platform. TRAQ score supports an advertisers’ ability to plan, execute and target their audience in an environment that reflects their brand image and drives ROI, while simultaneously setting benchmarks for publishers who wish to improve the quality of their content and design to attract premium advertisers. Integral is headquartered in New York with operations in San Francisco, London, Tokyo and Sydney. Learn more at www.integralads.com.